


Being Here

by Yamiyoru



Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Bad Ending, Bloody Mary References, Bloody Yosuke, Depression, Happy Ending, I switched their halloween costumes, Inspired by A Christmas Carol, M/M, Normal Ending, Vampire Yosuke, Werewolf Souji
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 02:22:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9051448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yamiyoru/pseuds/Yamiyoru
Summary: A Christmas drabble so Merry Christmas and Happy New year. This story plays off the concept of A Christmas Carol, namely the Past, Present and Future to influence the meaning of 'being here.'In this AU where Souji is a werewolf and Yosuke is a vampire, the two spend their Christmas thinking about the past, present and future. Disclaimer: I do not own Persona.





	1. Being Here

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know werewolves and vampire are of a wrong season but hey, they celebrate Christmas too. (In my AU, they do.)

**Being Here**

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

Roused by the short tapping on the window, Souji slowly opened his eyes to his darkened bedroom. The sounds were coming from behind him. And whoever it was, it sure was persistent. 

The sleepy man sat up sleepily and moved slowly towards the thick curtains. Pushing it slightly aside, silver moonlight was allowed in through the closed glass panels and showed long shadows to the wooden floor. 

Outside, a raven with glowing red eyes perched itself on the stile and tilted its head when Souji’s gaze locked with it. 

_My Master send his invitation to both Master Seta and Master Hanamura for his Christmas Eve party that is taking place next week. May I confirm your attendance?_

_'You’re delivering that message at this unholy hour?'_ was what Souji wanted to say but the truth to be told, this late hour should be when he was most active. Seeing how bright and full the moon was as well. Which werewolf slept at night? 

He did. 

And his partner, a unfortunate vampire, was unstirred by the event occurring between the bed and window, remained fast asleep. Souji doubted he would wake up even if he tried shaking the other so he asked the familiar to return another day for the answer. 

The raven was not pleased and obviously unsatisfied with the reply. Without speaking, it held fast to the stile for as long as 10 minutes. Eventually, it gave up and spread its wings, taking off into the night sky. 

Shutting the curtain, Souji mused over his decision. It was not like he wanted to make things difficult for the familiar and have it fly over again for fun but he really could not decide for Yosuke. It was especially important that he discussed it properly with his partner first, when everything recently felt like a timed bomb with Yosuke. Souji must made sure that Yosuke was comfortable with the arrangement. 

Lying back down, Souji ran his fingers through the white hair that now replaced the once dyed brown mess. If Yosuke’s eyes were open, it would be this dark red iris, like roses; another characteristic of a Vampire. Yosuke’s Change was in the recent past, marking the present as a delicate period of time. Even more so for anyone, who once thought they were humans and grew up thinking they were. 

Souji wished he could give better moral support but he was born into a family of pure line of werewolves and raised as one. His words would only come out sounding like hypocritical pity. How was he to truly understand what it was like if it never happened to him directly. 

Not to mention Yosuke’s Change was forced. That day was a traumatic experience for Souji and it was worse for Yosuke. The heat that he felt from the opposite street and the smoke rising eagerly into the sky would stay with him forever. They were lucky Yosuke survived so Souji told himself they could take it slow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can read the remaining 3 chapters as separate chapters that emphasize the idea of Past, Present and Future respectively, like 3 different endings to a Visual Novel game or all 4 chapters as one big story. Hopefully, you can see what I am trying to do.


	2. Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuck in the past.

**Past**

_Chirp. Chirp. Chirp._

Staying on the lower levels, Souji could hear the birds chirping loudly on a nearby tree. Somewhere between thinking about the unfortunate day and stroking Yosuke’s hair, Souji had fell asleep and when he woke up again, sunlight was threatening to enter through the thick drapes. 

Yosuke too had shifted during the night, with his arms locked around Souji’s middle. He was not going anywhere. Not that he would if this was what Yosuke wanted and Souji laced his arms around the other man.

If Yosuke wanted to sleep, he would let him sleep. If Yosuke was hungry, he would make food for him. If Yosuke refused anything, Souji was not going to force Yosuke into doing it. He would listen to Yosuke’s every want, if that was all it would take to have Yosuke walk out of it and to say his name again. 

_Yosuke, please. Please talk to me._

Since that incident, Yosuke stopped talking. Not a word. Not a sound. And Souji missed the cheerful and playful voice.

The fire had also left Yosuke emotionally handicapped. He would not smile or laugh at late night comedy shows. He had no reaction to Chie’s yells and Kanji’s shouts either. The most he gave was a stare at the two and nothing more.

Often into the night, Souji would find Yosuke sitting by himself quietly on the sofa, watching the muted television with his legs hugged tightly to his chest. In the same way when they found him and it took a lot of coaxing from Souji to get the man to sleep. When he did, Yosuke would pass out almost right away. It frightened Souji.

Pulling Yosuke closer into his arms, Souji imagined the warmth that Yosuke once had, which was lost. Yosuke was broken. A broken doll that was not interested in the world. 

_Being here isn’t enough. I should have been there._

_Regret._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To me, this is the bad ending.


	3. Present

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holding on to the present.

**Present**

Souji woke to the tickling sensation around his neck and he opened his eyes to find a mop of white hair. So that was the culprit. Moving his hand, he pushed some strands out of Yosuke’s face and as usual, Yosuke was dead to the world.

Trying not to wake the sleeping vampire, Souji slipped off the bed to make breakfast but he did not expect the quilt to follow him and he tripped on the tangled mess. His outstretched hand grabbed the curtain to prevent the fall and his weight pulled it off its hinges. With the last obstacle gone, the Sun shone brightly down onto Yosuke, who instantly woke up and yelped at the sudden burn. Yosuke immediately scrambled off the bed and ducked into the nearest mirror. 

Souji could faintly hear an exasperated ‘damn it, man’ as he picked himself up and in time to see Yosuke emerged from the other mirror in the living room. The vampire stood in the darker doorway with his best ‘I’m not amused’ face. 

‘It's an accident.’ 

‘Right. I wouldn’t think otherwise.’ 

‘Honest. See?’ 

Proving his point, Souji showed him the half pulled off curtain but he doubted it would prove anything, evidently from Yosuke’s frown. 

‘You’re lucky I had some Bloody Mary’s genes in me or that was some first degree burn right there.’ 

They were indeed lucky. It was the same bloodline that saved Yosuke from the fire. At first, they thought Yosuke perished in the fire but Souji refused to think Yosuke was a thing of the past and so he returned to the scene. All was left was the stairway of Yosuke’s house; the only structure that was still standing from the blaze. No one could have survived the fire.

It was then that Rise picked up Yosuke’s life aura and with her sensory skill, they located Yosuke inside the mirror. Apparently, in the nick of time, Yosuke’s Bloody Mary bloodline awakened and he dodged into the mirror by the stairway, letting him escape the collapsing building. But being newly awaken to his power, Yosuke was stuck inside and had no idea how to leave. 

If Souji was not persistent in finding Yosuke, the latter might had died from starvation. He still remembered how small and afraid Yosuke looked when they found him. Curled in a corner with his knees pulled right to his chest while waiting for help. Or how Yosuke collapsed from exhaustion when he reached out to touch the other.

The least he could do was be nice to Yosuke. They could have lost him.

‘I’m sorry, okay? I’ll make it up to you with your favorite breakfast. What’re you having?’

‘Fix the curtain first? It's far too bright in here.’ 

An expected answer from Yosuke and Souji turned to put the hooks back into place.

 _Being here is just the beginning._

_Holding on._


	4. Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Without the past or present, there's no future.

**Future**

Stretching a little, Souji found himself alone on the bed and the curtain was drawn. The light casting his shadow across was dark orange. Wow. His afternoon was gone. Souji only wanted a short nap but apparently, his body disagreed.

Yosuke knew he had plans to clean the house but did not bother waking him. Now he needed to wait till the next weekend. How was he going to do that as it was also the Baron’s Christmas party?

A bit disgruntled, Souji walked into the living room while contemplating if he should complain about it. He half expected Yosuke to be watching television as usual and prepared himself to use Yosuke’s sloth-like behavior as a good argument point, to find the television switched off. And the vampire in question was in the balcony and in the midst of bringing in the laundry. If this was a comedy, Souji’s jaw would have dropped to the floor. Yosuke? Doing laundry? 

_Impossible._

The Yosuke he knew and loved had never lifted a finger in the house, but was doing house chores. Now that he was looking at it, the floor did feel wiped and not grainy with a hint of cleansing parfum in the air. Did Yosuke do the chores for him? Or it was too good to be true that this was a dream and he would wake up in a moment to cry over his lost weekend?

‘I’m not going to even retort whichever nonsense you’re thinking,’ said Yosuke as he pushed the lump of clothes into Souji. 

Right, they were bonded and Yosuke’s telepathic power as a vampire meant he could sense Souji’s emotions.

‘I have never seen you hold a mop before. Are you really Yosuke? What did you do to my husband?’ 

‘Shut up! You looked so tired so I thought for a change, I would do it for you. And this is what I get in return, you ungrateful asshole.’

‘Why the sudden change?’ 

Yosuke blushed and turned away to mumble, ‘do I really need a reason? Then take it as compensation for saving me.’ 

Yosuke was soft but Souji heard it and stayed silent because it was him, who was saved. 

_Being here means nothing if you weren’t there._

_Thank you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you so much for reading. It's a little drabble I wanna try and inspired by A Christmas Carol. I wanted to write how the dynamics between Souji and Yosuke can change if they are fixated on only one aspect of their life. Would you embrace the past, present or the future? Or all?
> 
> In case, you don't get what I'm trying here, I'll explain it.  
> Basically, the 3 chapters play off the idea of 'Past,' Present' and 'Future'.  
> 1) Yosuke was not able to move on because Souji wasn't there.  
> 2) Yosuke was given a chance to live in the present because Souji refuse to let the past be a thing.  
> 3) Yosuke was able to grow as a person and was more forward looking to the future because Souji was and still is here with him.
> 
> At the same time, you can also read all 4 chapters as one big story, where the chapters are subsequent years. In summary, Souji regretted not being there for Yosuke when the fire happened, and so he decided to be here for Yosuke. With Souji's support, Yosuke was able to walk out of his trauma and live each day as it is. Eventually, Yosuke took his own step into the future willingly and do something in return for Souji.
> 
> I'm so glad I finished it in time for Christmas. Merry Christmas!


End file.
